11. Telling the story that breathes

The typical ways writers study and practice storytelling often encourage us to conflate “paying attention” to our craft with catching errors or imperfections.

We try to pay our best, most granular attention to the words on the page, in order to bring them closer to some standard of excellence. And at certain points during revision, there’s not actually anything wrong with that.

But when this type of attention seeps into your full drafting process, it messes up your ability to pay attention in ways that aren’t critical or catastrophic or hypervigilant. You can lose the ability to really be present with the story – to find the language that breathes.

This month, I’m exploring ways to pay attention as we write that can take us deeper into presence and relationship with our stories. Ways to write as a living, breathing, imagining storyteller, and not as our own worst critic.

Writing praxis tips

In the episode, I focused on the breath as a physical pathway into the somatic space of a story. But breath isn’t the only option for this kind of practice; any kind of tangible sensory connection can help ground you in the story space.

This month’s tip is a quick checklist to help you identify which senses serve as your own most powerful portals into a more embodied experience as you write (either as an alternative to the breath, or to supplement it).